出差砂州天鹅城 Working trip to Sibu

This blog entry was about my work trip to Sibu, Sarawak dated 30/4 - 2/5. Although it is 2 months late, this is one of those memory I wish to keep for long term. Writing it down could somehow make a memory lasts and stays vivid. April was a crazy month for me, I was sent flying to Sarawak 3 times within that month, under the name of health checks and health talks. I could still remember grumbling and resenting innerly of how inconsiderate my company was, monopolising 3 my consecutive weekends, disregarding my health condition ( I was coughing nonstop for 2 months) and personal time . Now that when I look back, the 3 trips to Sarawak marked the happiest memory of my 1 year career with Melilea International. My colleagues couldn't understand my affection for Sarawak, I couldn't really explain it myself, perhaps it was the nature and people that made Sarawak dear to me. Little did I know that it was my last time going to Sarawak as Melilea Nutritionist.

出差砂州猫咪城 (Kuching Work Trip)

Though I am a Malaysian, I have not step foot on the land of Sarawak til I am 21 years old. It was a family trip to Miri and Mulu. The mountains, caves, rivers, forests and greenery Sarawak has to offer is something very refreshing to the eye and soul of a KL girl.

It never occur to me that I would then visit Sarawak continously 3 times within a month due to work. It is kinda funny for someone who rarely travel by plane like me, would be heading to airport every week that month. Though it is tiring to be flying so frequently, the Sarawak experience was love at first sight.

My current company has quite a few branches at Sarawak and Sabah, as there are no nutritionists based at East Malaysia, the headquarter nutritionist team was asked to support the heath check roadshow at Kuching, Miri and Sarikei.

Nutritionist uniform while performing health check

A job with conscience

I have been joining the work force for almost 4 months now. University life seems like a life time away. Yet somehow, my current working environment and condition makes me feel like still being in school.

The restrictions on costume and hairstyle are like the disciplines in school. Tie up your hair, wear black colour pants or skirt, wear black high heel, wear colours that are not too bright....

We nutritionist team stays stuck together everyday as the rest of the departments are still being housed at the Melaka office. My senior nutritionist is just like a senior in school. In fact she was truly a UKM Food Science & nutrition senior years ago. Perhaps I am fortunate to have her as guidance, since she is like a mother to us at office, making sure we don't commit fatal mistakes and kiss our career path bye bye.

My major job is giving health talks, that is like giving presentations in university to fellow coursemates and professors. Power point is still being used. The only difference being, my audiences are now adults in black tux and they might not have science background. They are distributors, so they aren't really interested in the science theories most of the time. They are more interested to be told on how to sell the product and earn money.

During my university years, I joined the Study Guidance Sheng Xue group. We always had events and we had committee and everyone has a job on that day. It is funny now that in the working world, things work exactly the same as back in uni. We had an organic baby grand final contest in Prince Hotel yesterday. 20 over staffs were supporting the event. We had briefing from coordinator, we set up registration counter, we had sales team, we had ushers blah blah. Staffs were all working together, even the manager level staffs were involved and wore the same costume.

The tricky part of working as a nutritionist in a direct sales company is that, you must HOLD FIRM TO YOUR CONSCIENCE AND MORAL VALUES. So many times, I felt like I am losing it when the distributors are using cunning techniques to scare their customers into buying the health products they do not need.

Some of the distributors had been with the company for years. They thought after hearing a few health talks from the company would make them wiser. And us nutritionists being young and just joined the company shortly, they tried to influence or stay involve when we are giving health consultation to the customers. When I advised on customers about how to take care of their liver, since most of the time it's due to their lack of sleep, the distributors would be there screaming the name of the 'liver product' . Each time after performing health check, I could almost see their DISAPPONTMENTS when the result showed that their customers were in good health. And you could see them smirking innerly if the result was bad, cause that would be golden time to sell products.

Few days ago, I was really angry.

Could the company's soya powder replace milk powder as infants' food?

That was asked by the distributor.

I told her if the baby hasn't started eating solid food and still at the stage that depends solely on milk, soya alone couldn't supply all the nutrients needed. That milk is still needed.

That was where things went wrong. The distributor went to ask another of my colleague nutritionist and she got the same answer. She was mad, asking who trained you ppl? Your nutritionist reported in the newspaper a few years ago, saying soya could replace cow's milk as infant food !

U know why she is so mad? Cause my statement would affect her business.

Later on, our senior nutritionist advised us, that babies below 6 months should be encouraged to drink mother's milk. Baby that had started taking solid food can drink soya because they have nutrient sources from other food. Our company indeed had educated the distributors that soya's milk is more superior than cow's milk in term of nutrients and proteins.

But the thing is, nobody told them that the condition is :

If it is a baby formula soya milk, then it can replace the baby formula cow milk.

But now we are talking about baby formula cow milk and our company's soya milk, of course the latter isn't more superior than the former. Baby formula cow milk is specially designed for infants, fortified and enriched with numerous nutrients and vitamins. It is processed differently, taking into consideration of infants' fragile digestive systems. Our company's soya formula is not specially meant for babies , but just as a drink for normal people who are usually adults. Just plain soya without any fortification or enrichments. How could this replace baby formula milk as the infants' only food?

It brings me horror, knowing that some babies are not being fed the nutrient rich milk they need, but fed with just plain soya , due to the lack of education and the misleading information from distributors.

So, always filter the information given to you by Direct Sales distributors. That is the advice given by our senior nutritionist.

Work aside, these are the things that give me comfort.

This is the set of sofa in one of our company branches. I love it. Cuddling with a book on the sofa, it is like being embraced in a warm hug.

This is the bakery shop below my company's building. It is beautiful to begin my morning with a mug of nice coffee, freshly baked pastry and a good book, on a nice rattan chair, with a morning view of the road.

I found this shop in Times Square. This little roasted chicky is very delicious and cost only RM4 ! The juice beside gives you multiple different sensations as it rolls down your tongue.

Vietnam food with beautiful arrangement. It is great to be alive.

I wish I am the best you ever met

It is always a bitter-sweet feeling.

You feel happy for him, but simulataneously you couldn't suppress a feeling of loss. A loss I have no right of feeling. Because I am the one who had leave it unclaimed.

This isn't the first time I am faced with these kind of circumstances. It happens pretty often these few years. Perhaps I should feel blessed and disregard the sense of loss, because I was once, the center of their attentions.

An admirer is a person who showers you with affection, attention, concerns and you name it. They started their pursue on you, with the sole intention of winning your heart. Each pursue has a time limit. Usually lasts from a couple of months to 1 year. After that period of time, some of them would disappear from your life for once and for all. You wondered if everything had been a dream. Some would remain, but keep a distance on the outer circumference of your social circle.

Being admired is the most wonderful feeling. But if you couldn't return the affection, then you shouldn't keep it. It is only fair to let the admirer knows where they stand and encourage them to move on.

And they usually do move on. This is where the tricky part comes in. I sincerely feel happy for them, because they are great guys who deserved to be loved back in the same magnitude they are capable of loving. I wont want them to waste their life loitering around me when I couldn't return their affection. But when I do heard of their new gfs, when the couple photoes come in, when they stop contacting you, man it is a very weird feeling I get.

Maybe boys differentiate courtship and friendship better than I do. Always when I thought I have found a soulmate, the guy thought he had found a potential gf. A friendship with boys will usually change when he starts liking you, or when he starts seeing a girl. The friendship gets tuned down when he has a gf. This is understandable, but sad too. I am just naive to think that friendships with boys will never change.

Do I treat my male friends differently after I myself am in a relationship? Do my bf treat the girls differently after he is committed to me ? I am unsure of these myself.

However, it always warm my heart when I receive phone calls or sms from ex-admirers once in a blue moon, asking me how do I do. These are innocent calls without courting intentions, some of them are now happily in their new relationships, but somehow in their hearts, there is a tiny space for you, wishing you well. This knowledge alone touches me tremendously. And this is for the best, for them, and for me.

But I know :) , though they have moved on, I will always hope that I am the best girl they ever met in their lives.

Vege Vege I love you

I have been dealing with vegetables all these while for my thesis research :). My job is to compare the difference of total phenolic content and antioxidant activity between organic and conventional vegetables. As organic vegetables are usually more expensive, it is a wonder whether they are really more superior in term of taste, nutrition content and antioxidant content.

I rarely visit the market. Hehe but for my thesis research, I found myself frequenting the tesco vegetable section, selecting vegetables for lab work.

Freshly from the supermarket

Prof wanted me to measure the size of organic and conventional vegetables. It is amazing that organic vegetables are so much shorter! Well, without the aid of pesticide, these organic vege are under so much stress that their focus were shifted to phenolic acid production, thus less growth.

Okra

Choy Sum

Time to get the vege washed and cut :). They look yummy. What a waste, they will soon be blended.

Ready to be blended

The blended vege were then shaken with ethanol solution for 2 hours to extract out its antioxidant content. The extracts were such a lovely shade of green. Looks like some magic potion from Harry Potter's potion class.

Okra extracts

The vege residues formed clumps that floated around. They are unwanted. The extracts wer filtered to obtain clear solutions.

Lovely okra extract

The extracts are concentrated with Rotary Evaporator. It was a cute sight seeing the ball like flask rotating in the water bath.

Unlike okra, the extracts for choy sum is in a much darker shade of green. Looks really acidic:).

Choy Sum extract

These babies are really light sensitive. The antioxidant content within is easily affected by light. For this, I always have to off the light of the lab and work in the dark to protect these babies. Those who shared the lab with me had been very considerate, poor them, haha have to work in the dark as well.

Amber bottles

The test tubes need to be protected by aluminium foils

The extracts were reacted with Folin Ciocalteu's reagent in alkaline solution. They turned blue after 2 hours. The darker the blue, the happier I am because it represents higher content of total phenolics :).

Microplate is such a lovely invention ! It lessens the burden and allow numerous readings to be done simultaneously.

This is the DPPH test where antioxidant activity is measured. The control with no antioxidant activity would remain purple while those with activities would fade to a light yellow colour.

I am thankful that my research doesn't involve those tedious procedures involving high tech machines. Some of the friends have suffered trying to book the equipment or bullied by lab assistants. I am spared of those emotional encounters, but they do gain something too. At least they learn to use HPLC and some unheard machines.

Lab work could be rewarding, but it could turn you nuts too. There are dramas in the lab everyday, you could see the mood swings going up and down like roller coasters among fellow coursemates. A spoilt machine , a spilt sample, a rude lab assistant could make you miserable.

Good luck with my dear coursemates :). Hope we could all complete our lab work soon.

Decorating my room

I have finally gotten my very own room after all these years.

I didn't really mind about that previously, it had become a habit to me, after sharing a room with my brother for 10 years. The day I asked for a Double decker bed as my birthday present at 13 years old was the day I started having a downstair-neighbour. I liked the height, so I chose to slept on the upper bed while bro was contented with his lower bed. Though we are sharing a room, it didn't always feel that way to me, cause I can't SEE him from my upper bed. With the 7 years gap, we can't really be the best of buddies. But there were nights when we would chat to each other on our beds without seeing each other. The conversations roamed around the room, with him talking from his lower bed and me on the upper bed.

After dad cleared away his den, I have now my own room. The prospect of it got me excited. It is a tiny room with limited full walls. I was tested when it came to arranging the furnitures around the room. The little girl in me took over and I ended up decorating my room in a child like manner. It took me quite some time to decide on the wall colour. Secretly, I kinda wanted a princess-like room. I chose light purple for all the walls and pink for the wall beside my bed. I like the harmony contrast, the room looks like sweet candy.

I have got many stuffed animals and soft toys , they were gifts. I didn't know what got into me, but I pooled them into the corner and bought a white coloured garden fence to enclose them, it looks like a little farm. Grandma asked me how come I didn't find it 'zho deng' ? Personally, I found it kinda cute.

I love carpets. Especially those with soft thick furs. They are usually expensive and cost hundreds of ringgit. But I found 1 purple carpet at Jusco during sales, RM50+, not very furry to my liking, but satisfactory. I love sitting on the carpet while reading.

The walls look blank without pictures. I would like to have paintings on my wall, but I don't have the confidence to draw nice pictures on the wall. Afterall, I was pro at crayon art , but not murals. And God knows how much paint I would need for the wall. Thus I was overjoyed when I found wall stickers at shopping malls and night markets. They costed around RM2 for one big sticker, I bought nearly 10.

Mum got excited over the stickers as well. She said they would look good on her classroom's bulletin boards. She made me give her the sticker with sunflowers. Her argument being : There would be more than 50 ppl seeing the picture in my classroom, compared to yours which would only be admired by you alone. She ended up having her way, because my walls are full.

The road taken

People are always saying that,

what you study isn't necessarily what you would be doing in the future.

The course you are taking in university might not be your future career.

That each career could be successful.

Yet most professional careers would require you to have professional knowledge.

Without it, you can't even step foot in that career.

While choosing courses after form 6,

we always focus on interests,

choose the course you like,

in actual, different courses offers you a different starting payment.

I had always been in a good class. So it isn't surprising that many of my friends end up studying medicine, pharmacy, engineering, dentistry, pilot, the classic professional courses. In gatherings, attention would naturally be focused on friends studying/working in these fields. They offer interesting hospital stories, airport stories and these future doctors would be arguing with the pharmacists due to their overlapped roles in Malaysia.

These courses all offer high starting salary. Listening to their interesting career stories and high figure salary often left me feeling overwhelmed and uncertain. Food Science and Nutrition will never offer me that kind of starting salary. It is indeed not practical to compare my course with those health care fields, but we were all so similar in the secondary school years, our results didn't vary much. But one decision, a choice of course, had led us to different starting point in the career world.

Had I regretted my choice? I've never had a very stone hard ambition to in a certain career. I know what I don't like. But choosing Food Science and Nutrition in a government university was a decision made based on financial practicality, interest and academic requirement. Mom used to say that wealthy parents could help make the dreams of their children a reality. Many of my friends from STPM had abandoned the courses assigned to them by government university, opting for private uni overseas, pursuing dreamed courses with family financial support. So I'd made a practical and down to earth decision with my course selection. I do like my course. But it is indeed discouraging listening to the starting salary of my seniors'.

Pancakes party

I had been and still am a big fan of pancakes !! I can't really explain the reason, but I like the appearance of golden crispy pancakes and I love the sensation of them in my mouth.

There used to be a stall selling western food and pancakes near my house, but the day it closed shop was the day I stopped having pancakes that frequently. Pancakes are Americans' regular breakfast, but they don't seem that common here in Malaysia. I usually have my share of pancakes only on vacations, hotels usually serve pancakes with maple syrup :).

It is study week now. But it is extremely boring to have to study all day. It doesn't help that my 1st subject isn't even my field (Food Food Food). But it is a computer subject, something I am not pro at all. This is my 1st time understanding what does RAM stands for and why does it affect a computer's performance. We'd always been talking about USB, but now only I know that USB is also a BUS ! The intel was promoting about their duo core processor, yet I never had an idea what it is. Except that maybe more means better? Surely duo core is better than single core? Yup it was in all these lecture notes that I got to find out about them.

So back to my pancake story.

I don't really like to eat. I hate meal times in university, when I have to think of what to eat and there isn't any nice food within the campus radius. But it was when I was studying half way at home that day, that I suddenly craved for food. I seem to be hungrier when I am studying. I gota feed my brain. And I knew, I had a box of premixed pancake powder lying in the cupboard down there in the kitchen.

For the fun of it, or maybe just to quench my hunger, I started making pancakes for the 1st time in my life. The direction written on the box was simple. Just add in water. Or milk, if you want creamier pancakes. I would opt for the latter. It said a pouch of powder could make 8-9 pancakes. That was a lot !

Variety is the spice of life. I started searching for flavours to be added into my pancake mixture.

I saw a tin of Milo. Yes that would make nice chocolate pancakes. A tablespoon would be sufficient.

I love coffee. Are there coffee pancakes? I think I had not seen one. But I can make one. Curiously, I added in a tablespoon of coffee powder into my mixture. Coffee could be bitter. I do not want bitter pancakes. Perhaps, some sugar might make the flavour more pleasant. In went the sugar.

As for the last mixture, I was thinking of cheese. Yes those thin slices of cheese that went with bread. I cut them into small pieces and had them mixed into my pancake mixture.

Frying the pancakes was rather fun. But it was tricky to ensure that my pancakes are round enough and didn't get out of shape when I flipped them. Some of them got scattered in the flipping process.

Cheese pancakes

Coffee pancakes

Finally, I got to taste my pancakes. I must admit, the colour for cheese pancakes look more inviting. Chocolate and coffee pancakes had a darker shade of brown. But after eating all 3 flavours, I still think I prefer coffee pancake:).

Clockwise : Coffee, Cheese, Milo

It tasted not bad, just like pancakes should taste. But I made too many pancakes. Eating 2 was full enough. The rest of the pancakes went to my family members.